Gators versus ’Noles: A Tale of Two Cities and Their Efforts to Build Business
Gainesville Business Report –By Rick Sapp
July 27, 2010
Remember the Choke at Doak and Free Shoes University? Remember the ankle twisting, eye-gouging, blown calls? Burt Reynolds and Erin Andrews? When it comes to sports, Gainesville and Tallahassee have long been tough competitors who battle for the public’s attention.
But there’s rivalry off the field as well.
When companies look for a college town in which to locate in North Florida, Gainesville and Tallahassee are in the thick of the battle. And for the winner it’s more than just a battle for bragging rights; it’s a competition that can produce high-quality jobs, a stronger economy and opportunities for entrepreneurs and innovative businesses.
To get a better feel for how these two cities might compare in the eyes of appraising business owners, we took at look at their strengths and challenges.
Here’s what we found:
Political Focus
By political affiliation, Gainesville/Alachua County and Tallahassee/Leon County are similar. As of May, Supervisor of Elections Pam Carpenter notes there were 150,309 registered voters in Alachua County: 52 percent Democrat, 28 percent Republican and 20 percent non-affiliated. Leon County’s Ion Sancho registered 178,522 voters: 57 percent Democrat, 27 percent Republican and 17 percent something else. Nevertheless, local elections in both communities tend to be non-partisan—at least on the surface—since candidates may not campaign specifically as Democrats or Republicans.
Despite the similarity in party affiliation, there are significant differences in the make-up of the elected boards in the two communities, and in their focus. Here in Gainesville, the city and county commissions are populated by environmental activists, ministers, several current or former university officials, several long-time politicians and a couple business people. When asked his priorities, new Gainesville Mayor Craig Lowe talks about strengthening neighborhoods, quality of life, transportation and diversifying energy options.
In the city of Tallahassee and Leon County, the dozen commissioners are skewed more toward attorneys, long-time politicians, lobbyists and business people, most without backgrounds in community or environmental activism. Mayor John Marks’ emphasis in Tallahassee is clear: “Economic development is the number one priority. The mayor and city commission are working diligently to encourage, foster and facilitate appropriate economic development efforts.”
Business Advantage: Tallahassee
Taxes
A mil rate is basically the dollar amount of tax per $1,000 of assessed value of property. The mil rate paid by a property in Alachua and Leon Counties is the sum of the county, city and school board, plus any special district such as water management districts.
Local millage is only a portion of each government’s revenues, of course, as municipalities received state sales and corporate income taxes, along with revenues from secondary sources such as parking and jay-walking fines.
Property taxes are about 20 percent lower in Tallahassee/Leon County than in Gainesville/Alachua County, even though the Capital City has levied a special one mil tax in certain downtown zones to fund economic improvement. The sales tax, however, is slightly higher in Tallahassee.
A difficulty that both of these areas face is the great amount of property that is not subject to local taxation, including state, federal and local government properties, non-profit corporations and church properties. About half of the property in Gainesville and Alachua County is exempt, while slightly more than half in Tallahassee and Leon County off the rolls. By contrast, such counties as Marion and St. Johns report that 60 and 70 percent of their properties are taxable.
Business Advantage: Tallahassee
Economic Engines
Sports, education and research have helped drive the economies in both Gainesville and Tallahassee, but the Gators definitely have the edge in these categories.
In sports, four championships in football and basketball in the last four years have given the people of Gainesville years of memories and millions of dollars in revenue. Over in Tally, despite the 9-foot statue of The Bobby, sports has come up short in the last decade with no major national championships since the Seminoles took two football championships in the ’90s.
In education, both cities are filled with students:
UF and Santa Fe College enroll about 68,000 students in Alachua County. The state capital, which has three universities—FSU, Tallahassee Community College and Florida A&M University—has an almost identical number.
The endowments of the Alachua County colleges are greater than those in Leon County; $1.1 billion (Santa Fe has a $36 million endowment) versus $689 million ($570 million for FSU, $88 million for Florida A&M and $31 million for TCC).
Annual operating budgets are approximately the same at the university level: $573 million for UF and $612 for FSU/FAMU. But a portion of UF’s budget is supporting research and agriculture outside Gainesville, so the impact of UF’s dollars is less, locally.
In research, however, Gainesville and UF are clearly several touchdowns ahead of the Tallahassee rivals. According to 2007 statistics compiled by The Center for Measuring University Performance, the UF ranks No. 15 nationally in attracting research support, with a total of $593 million. With $190 million of research funding, FSU is No. 89 and FAMU ($54 million) is not ranked.
Gainesville also has the Shands centers and the regional Veterans Hospital pumping money into the economy.
Business Advantage: Close, but advantage Gainesville
Economic Development
Instead of taking development as it comes, both Gainesville and Tallahassee have become more proactive in soliciting industry.
The Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce’s recent push for Innovation Gainesville is a prime example of the efforts here to generate jobs and attract companies. But the community has been brewing its own businesses for years, thanks to research at the University of Florida and the region’s very active business incubators. In fact, our area now has more incubators per square mile than any other city in the U.S., says Brent Christensen, chamber president and CEO.
The Gainesville focus is weighted to medical and bio-technology. Along with the two Bigs—the Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator and the Gainesville Technology Enterprise Center—we have Santa Fe College’s Center for Innovation and Economic Development, the fledgling FISE (Florida Institute for Sustainable Energy) at UF, and Synogen, a private incubator founded by Jamie Grooms and Richard Allen, the founders of RTI Biologics.
And more incubators are on the away. Along with the Florida Innovation Hub, which will be built on the old Alachua General Hospital site, the city of Gainesville is planning an incubator. City Manager Russ Blackburn says the city plans to start developing the innovation campus on the 16-acre site east of GRU’s Kelly Generating Station and south of downtown in 2011.
In Tallahassee, the build-your-own business incubation concept has taken hold far more slowly and the focus is different, relying in great part on research at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at FSU (in which UF is a partner), the largest and highest-powered magnet laboratory in the world.
Beyond that, FSU opened its first incubator in renovated buildings in the Commonwealth Center in northwest Tallahassee on June 9. The goal is to provide opportunities for FSU researchers and related start-ups.
“It’s ideal to help grow business,” says Kim Williams, chair of the Economic Development Council. Confirmed tenants are Florida Custom Synthesis (drug-compound development and research); CICEFT, or Cable-in-Conduit, Engineering, Fabrication, and Test (encasing superconducting wire in stainless tubes for use in nuclear facilities); and BioFront (hepatitis C testing kits).
“Space is limited on campus, and there isn’t another place in Tallahassee with laboratories for these types of start-up companies, so we built our own,” says Kirby Kemper, FSU’s vice president for research. “By retrofitting these existing buildings, we have an inexpensive way of establishing a small-business incubator for local companies working with university-generated research.”
Business Advantage: Gainesville, by the score of a typical Urban Meyer-Bobby Bowden football game.
Transportation
When business travelers and commerce want to reach Gainesville, they have ready access to the city through Interstate 75, as well as Gainesville Regional Airport. The 1,650-acre airport is located roughly 10 miles from I-75 and a dozen miles northeast of UF and Shands, which impacts travel to those key destinations. Gainesville airport serves 300,000 passengers annually through Delta. U.S. Air and American Eagle.
In Tallahassee, business travelers have access through Interstate 10 and the 2,743-acre Tallahassee Regional Airport, which is seven miles southeast of downtown, making it marginally more convenient for business travelers. Tallahassee’s one million air passengers are served by four airlines: American Eagle, Continental, Delta and U.S. Air.
Business Advantage: Tallahassee, by half the length of a football.
Quality of Life
The three blocks of SE 1st Street from the Hippodrome Theatre to University Avenue can reasonably be considered the heart of downtown Gainesville. Much of the private property in that area has recently been redeveloped. But there are some rundown buildings and center city is surrounded by a bevy of local government buildings and separated from UF by a mile of strip development and older neighborhoods.
Entertainment here is very dependent on offerings from UF, where everything from the Florida Museum of Natural History’s Butterfly Rainforest to the Curtis M. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts attracting visitors.
Gainesville has worked very hard to put additional monies into its four core redevelopment areas and, with the advancing plans for the Cade Museum of Innovation and other opportunities in the Depot Avenue area, this vision could pay off handsomely when the economy improves.
The Tallahassee picture is more complex, but the economic heart of that city, which is dominated by high rise state office buildings, extends from the state capitol north a half-dozen blocks to West Tennessee/U.S. 90. The downtown area offers the Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science and the Challenger Learning Center with IMAX theater and planetarium. Tallahassee has its share of older properties and poor neighborhoods interspersed along U.S. 90, which was at one time the principal east-west thoroughfare through north Florida.
Tallahassee’s recent redevelopment efforts have focused on the properties between the FSU and FAMU campuses. Gaines Street renewal, in fact, is high on Mayor Marks’ agenda and the homegrown art zone in the McConnell Drive loop, west of Railroad Avenue, is a vital destination.
Business Advantage: Off-campus, Tallahassee has a slight edge.
Regional Economic Initiatives
When then Florida governor Jeb Bush began talking about downsizing state government, it was a wake-up call to Tallahassee, says Mayor Marks.
“Don’t get me wrong. State government is very strong here,” he says, “but we began to look elsewhere to support our economic base.”
As a major part of that initiative, Tallahassee committed to a regional approach to spur growth, says Beth Kirkland, executive director of the Economic Development Council. The council promotes Leon, Gadsden, Jefferson and Wakulla Counties in business initiatives.
According to Marks, the Leon County area has significant eco-tourism potential, especially in cooperation with Wakulla County. “A whole lot of attractions here need promoting,” he says. “We may not be the kind of place where families will come for a week of vacation, but for a day or two there’s plenty to see and do.”
“We also worked with the Stanford Research Institute out of St. Petersburg to develop six sectors of interest,” Kirkland says. Those include:
1. Alternative Energy and Environment
2. Aviation, Aerospace, Defense and National Security (Manufacturing)
3. Health Sciences and Human Performance Enhancement
4. Information Technology
5. Research and Engineering Services
6. Transportation and Logistics
“We mapped these sectors because a misperception about Tallahassee is that we’re the state capital and with state government and two universities we’re all about public sector jobs,” Kirkland says. “That just isn’t necessarily true.”
Gainesville has also crossed the county line to develop a regional economic network. Christensen mentions the Heart of Florida Coalition that is headquartered at College of Central Florida in Ocala (formerly Central Florida Community College) as a driver. Taking a different approach, the coalition has developed seven strategic focus areas:
1. Economic Development
2. Legislative
3. Marketing/Branding
4. Regional Water
5. Regional Transportation
6. Arts, Culture and Recreation
7. Organizational Structure/Funding
To date, the coalition has developed plans and strategies, and hosted summits, workshops and conferences.
Business advantage: Even.
A business wishing to relocate, expand or open its doors in North Florida might very well narrow its choices to Gainesville or Tallahassee.
At that point, the decision on where to go may be up for grabs. If taxes are a concern, Tallahassee has the edge. If access to high-tech, biotech and green energy research is important, Gainesville is clearly the choice. If quality of life is important, both areas have pluses.
Ultimately, development may come down to a few essential benefits: a site that is prepared and available, a streamlined approval process and a critical mass of related businesses.